Sex assault victim remains in hospital

A SUN STAFF WRITERTHE BALTIMORE SUN

MAGNOLIA - A woman who was sexually assaulted along Interstate 95 remained hospitalized yesterday in serious but stable condition, and state police said she may have been drugged before she was attacked.

The 20-year-old Harford County woman was discovered in the woods along northbound I-95 about 1 p.m. Thursday after a member of the Maryland Transportation Authority Courtesy Patrol stopped to check her vehicle and heard her screaming, according to Maryland State Police spokesman Sgt. Thornnie O. Rouse. She was taken to Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Rouse said.

Investigators have had limited contact with the victim, Rouse said, but a preliminary investigation shows that she met several men at a White Marsh restaurant after 10 p.m. Wednesday and drank a beverage offered to her by one of the men. The drink might have been drugged, Rouse said.

The victim agreed to give a ride to one of the men, who said he lived in Bel Air, Rouse said. The victim believes two other men followed them in another vehicle, he said.

Investigators do not know how long the car was parked there, he said, but another Courtesy Patrol officer had noticed the vehicle about 11 a.m. and saw a man in a blue shirt and khaki pants walking between the woods and the car.